


how wonderful life is now you’re in the world

by watchtheleaves



Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: #RACE: you’re seeing stars alright, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Slice of Life, This is, al is head over heels someone help that kid, albert pov kinda, but it’s like, but they’re fifteen, it’s one of the softest things i’ve written, non-binary albert, soccer !, soccer wounds, uhh taking care of wounds?, yeah idk what this is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-06
Updated: 2020-06-06
Packaged: 2021-03-04 05:48:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24578557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watchtheleaves/pseuds/watchtheleaves
Summary: albert proposes to race when they’re fifteen.
Relationships: Albert DaSilva/Racetrack Higgins
Comments: 7
Kudos: 21





	how wonderful life is now you’re in the world

**Author's Note:**

> i don’t know where this came from but here!! it’s soft!! take it!!
> 
> tw: mention of soccer-related wounds.

There were few things Albert hated more in their life than soccer. It was a family sport, some twisted tradition from what used to be soccer—something about their Brazilian roots. Albert spent fifteen years of their life trying to get out of it and failing miserably.

They were bad, on top of it all. Very, very bad.

It wasn’t unusual to come out bruised from soccer practice—really, it wasn’t. The game was naturally violent. Albert just seemed to have the worst, least convenient lack of brain-body coordination, so they ended up getting hurt more often than not.

Race would never, ever admit it, but taking care of Albert’s wounds after a game was one of the best parts of his week.

There were two sub-groups in their ginormous friend group. On one hand, there were the sportsmen—Finch, Mush, Jack, Smalls, Romeo, Mike, Katherine, Spot, and most sadly, Albert. Which had landed Race a perfect spot on the other group: the ones in charge of not letting the sportsmen die. All the future doctors—truly just Elmer, Buttons, Jojo, Specs and Blink, but it was still a pretty round number—were there, and with time, Race got a pretty good hand at cleaning minor wounds by just watching and asking, finding himself a way to keep his best friend out of relative trouble.

The system they all lived in didn’t make it any less hilarious when Race was the only one left waiting by the steps on the field and Albert was limping towards him.

“You’re going to kill yourself, one of these days,” Race said, moving to the side to let Albert fall unceremoniously on the steps.

“No, I like to think I’m pretty careful,” they said, drowning a hiss in their palm when Race rolled up their pant leg to reveal a bruise and a scraped knee. “I’m getting better, huh?”

“Oh, yeah,” nodded Race. “Ronaldinho’s got nothing on you.”

Albert cringed away from Race’s attempt to clean their knee, and he put a steady hand in their shoulder.

“Sit.”

“I’m not a dog,” Albert huffed. “It’s not even that bad, Tonio, let’s just go.”

Race looked at them unimpressed. “Your knee is bleeding.”

“So?”

A snort. Race took a clean gauze out of a bag in his backpack and indicated Albert to hold it against the wound. As the bleeding ceased—very much unlike Albert’s complaints—, Race pulled out a bottle spray of water and soap.

“Do we have to do this every time?”

“Yes.”

“I hate you.”

Race grinned and Albert rolled their eyes affectionately. Knee scrapes were common and annoying, especially to someone as prone to falling and tripping as Albert, but there was something in the way Race always took good care of the wound and didn’t let them go until they were completely in the clear that almost turned the minor scratch into a good thing.

Putting a bandage on, Race scanned the leg once again and his eyes quickly landed on their shin, painted purple with a bruise.

“Does it hurt bad?”

“Little bit,” Albert shrugged.

“Good,” he flicked their forehead. “Stop getting hurt.”

Albert stuck their tongue out and stood up rather miserably, the knee that held their harmed leg together wobbling under them. Race smiled mockingly and they flipped him off, slinging their backpack over their shoulder and carefully trailing down the steps.

It was a short walk—they tripped and fell not even three feet later.

Race laughed loudly, jogging towards them. Albert simply turned on their back and decided that the grass wasn’t such a bad place for lying down, all in all.

It was a nice day, for May. The sun was starting to burn less and less, and the breeze made the grass dance slowly around them.

“That went great,” Race said, sitting next to them. Albert tried kicking him and let out a small  _ ow. _

The blonde boy softened visibly, smiling down at them with the sun shining on him like he was the only person in the world. From Albert’s dazed point of view, few things separated Race from an actual angel.

He lied down next to them and looked up at the sky, breathing deeply before breaking into poorly contained laughter. Albert turned to look at him quizzically.

“What?”

Race waved them off. “Nothing, nothing, it’s just—you looked so—“ He giggled, making grand hand gestures. Albert had no idea what he meant, but they smiled back.

It couldn’t be past five. The gentle evening air made Albert tingle in wonder all over.

As the laughter died down, they studied Race’s face for a moment of peace—the wrinkles at the corner of his eyes, the slight up-curve of his lips, his olive tanned skin and the few sun-kissed freckles on his cheeks, the singular dimple, the eyes, the eyelashes. Race let himself be watched, scanned under the most loving eyes, until Albert spoke abruptly.

“Marry me,” they said, not tearing away from his gaze.

Race’s eyes widened slightly as his eyebrows furrowed. “What?”

The vacant soccer field was green from the grass and blue from the sky and the birds seemed to have gone silent in the most crucial moment.

“Marry me,” Albert repeated.

Sitting up straight, Race turned to look at them. “Are you crazy?”

“Maybe,” Albert smiled, sitting to level Race. They were both fifteen and months, and Albert was finally starting to outgrow Race after years of being the shortest by two inches. Their grin made their face glow and their eyes radiated certainty, but Race looked just confused. “Why not?”

“Albert, we’re fifteen,” he tilted his head, laughing nervously.

They rolled their eyes. “Not  _ now,  _ Tone, duh. Just—y’know.”

“Know what?”

“You know,” Albert looked down at their hands, messing with the ruined fabric of their school team uniform, and felt a new wave of insecurity. “One day. When we’re older.”

Race blinked. “How do you know you’ll still want to marry me when we’re older?”

A shrug. “Things grow with time, right?”

“You mean plants?”

“Plants, animals, people.”

There was a moment of silence. “And if you don’t want to marry me anymore when we’re older, then what?”

Albert looked up at Race, who was looking at them right back. They smiled.

“I’d have to be crazy for that, Tonio.”

“Grown-ups are pretty crazy to me, Albie.”

They shrugged. “Then I just won’t grow up! Look, just—“ Albert grabbed one of Race’s hands, cradled it between their own. “Think about it like—like a promise.”

Race held his breath. Albert didn’t use that word often.

“A promise of what?”

A couple circled the field and sat back in the further corner of the steps. They must’ve been freshmen at the oldest. They were hand in hand, smiling to each other in silence.

“Of us?”

Neither of them were believers. Albert taught Race how to remember the past, Race taught Albert how to live in the now. But the future was unknown, uncertain. Race knew he had much left to explore.

Looking back, there wasn’t much in his life that he had explored without Albert by his side.

“Yeah. A promise of us,” Albert smiled again, and they weren’t joking, they weren’t expecting or dreading or messing around—they were Albert at their purest, most earnest.

After a moment, Race felt a smile like their own growing on his face.

“And you wanna marry me—why? Because I put soap an’ water in your wounds?”

Albert thought for a moment. “Well, yeah. You do it every week, even though you don’t  _ have _ to take care of me—you just do. Why else would I want to marry you?”

_ ‘Cause you take care of me because you want to, not because you have to. _

It made sense. Race laughed at that.

“You’re crazy,” he said.

“Yeah?” Albert perked an eyebrow. They dug their hands on the ground and pulled out dirt and grass to shove in Race’s direction. “ _ You’re _ crazy.”

Shielding his face before immediately retaliating, Race laughed loudly.

Their dirt war showed them the way after sunset, until they got asked to leave the premises upon closing. After that, they walked. Their clothes were dirty. Their faces were dirty. Their breaths were still agitated.

Albert tapped Race’s shoulder after a moment of silent walking and breathed to say something. When Race turned to them, however, they couldn’t do anything but start running towards the furthest end of the street. And Race ran after them, like he always did.

When it got cold, Albert walked Race home. They got asked to stay for dinner, but they politely declined. Race hugged them before they did their thirty-second handshake. Then, they left.

It was good, their routine. It had been good for years, and it would continue to be so—Albert thought as they walked home—because they simply worked together. Albert knew, right then, with a shirt full of dirt and a bandaged leg, that they didn’t really want to try life any other way.

So, they made a promise. And Race promised back. It was simple, but it was theirs.

After all, that’s what they were to each other. A constant. A rock amidst chaos. What the other needed. Each other’s  _ something _ to hold onto, to believe in.

For the fiftieth time of the day, Albert thought about Race. For the fiftieth time, it made their dirty heart beat faster.

**Author's Note:**

> yeahhh yeahhhh yeahhhhh
> 
> i love them !
> 
> @newsieslive on twitter if you wanna say hi!! also Please leave a comment if you want, it really makes my whole day <3


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